Tuesday, 7 August 2012

New Map of Spain

High summer
in southern Spain is a good time to find a cool room with a cool drink and
avoid too much physical activity.So
it’s a great time to work on a new map.

I mentioned
a few weeks ago that I was working on a new map of Italy for my proposed
Campaigns of Napoleon project.I wanted
to make them more like Malcolm McCallum’s excellent campaign maps murat.ca/maps.htm

The
unexpected surrender of the 2nd French corps in my PBEM Gera
campaign put this project on the back burner.It suddenly seemed likely that I would have to start the next phase of
my 1813 campaign, which will be based in Spain.I already had the maps ready, see above, but
they were my old modular system where all towns were in the middle of the
square and all roads entered and left in the centre of the square.

I still want
to be able to transfer them to my modular wargames table, and this is where the
real problem arises.The roads on
Malcolm’s map follow a much more realistic course, but this would not convert
to my wargames table.

I am
determined to try to find a solution, but first I had to make a new strategic
map of Spain.There would still be the
20 mile grid square, which would translate on the tactical map to one wargames
table.But the towns would not all be in
the centre of the square, and the roads would not all enter and leave in the centre
of one of the four sides.

I already
have photo copies of Malcolm’s map of Spain.I drew a grid using his own border markings.Each of these would now be one of my map
squares, and each would convert to a wargame table.

New Map of
Spain

This is my
first attempt, and I am quite pleased with it.The roads look more natural, as does the location of the towns.And there is much less terrain than on my
earlier map.

Next comes
the difficult part.I now need to make
a tactical map ready for the next campaign.The campaign area will be from Valladolid to Burgos, and will cover an
area five by five squares on the strategic map.But there will be three by three squares on the tactical map for each
one on the strategic map.And though the
roads will not enter and leave in the centre of the square, they will have to
be capable of transferring to the wargames table using my limited number of
scenic squares.And of course all roads
on those squares to enter and leave in the middle of the square.

That’s next
week’s problem.Not sure I can solve
it.But it does keep me cool during
these hot high summer months.